The hard-fought 1-0 success means the Blades are guaranteed to go into the winter break in second place in the Sky Bet Championship, although they are currently top, ahead of Burnley’s game against Blackburn on Sunday.

Cardiff, meanwhile, are languishing in 19th place having won just two from their last five games.

Heckingbottom said after George Baldock’s 64th-minute goal settled the contest: “There was a lack of quality early on in the game, at half-time we knew the game was still there for anyone to win it.

On the mark: Sheffield United’s George Baldock celebrates scoring the winning goal at Cardiff City on Saturday. (Picture: Simon Galloway/PA Wire

“We wanted the players to come out strongly in the second half and I think we started the half really well.

“For us to be where we are at this point is fantastic. I think we are only going to get better from this point on.

“We are in a good position, we have picked up points in difficult games, but we need to continue to improve as a team and hopefully we can capitalise when the league restarts.”

On on-loan Manchester City midfielder McAtee, he continued: “We have been working with James a lot in training, on stuff off the ball.

Sheffield United's George Baldock celebrates scoring at Cardiff (Picture: Simon Galloway)

“We have been working on the defensive side of things. We have worked hard on our shape and he has come in today and made a big impact.

“We see glimpses all the time of what he can do. We are going to keep pushing him to improve in certain areas.

“We were getting to those top areas often enough, he definitely made the impact we wanted up top, I think he changed the game.”

James McAtee hailed as Sheffield United beat Cardiff to return to Championship summit